Unspecified/General

Set on the Mississippi riverfront at the edge of the French Quarter, the Audubon Aquarium opened on Canal Street in September 1990 and broke attendance records for a United States aquarium on its first day, drawing more than 13,000 visitors. It anchors the riverside Woldenberg Park and is run by the Audubon Nature Institute, the non-profit that also operates the city's zoo and several other conservation sites. A consortium of local architects gave it a wave-like silhouette and a sweep of glass facing the water. The galleries follow the waters of the Americas, from a walk-through Amazon rainforest and a Caribbean reef tunnel to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi itself. Long-standing favourites include the rare white alligators, a colony of African penguins, and a Great Maya Reef passage. A major overhaul costing tens of millions of dollars folded the institute's separate insectarium into the building, and the combined aquarium and insectarium reopened in June 2023 with new exhibits and a shared entrance. The riverfront location puts it within easy walking distance of the French Quarter, the streetcar lines and the Riverwalk, and a sister riverboat once linked it to the uptown zoo. With several thousand animals across more than 250 species, it works as a family-friendly counterpoint to the bars and music of the nearby Quarter, and it tends to be busiest on hot afternoons when the air-conditioned galleries pull crowds off the street. As with most aquariums, the quieter early hours offer the best chance to linger at the tanks, and combined tickets with the insectarium are the usual way in. The aquarium took heavy damage and lost many of its fish when power failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and its recovery became one of the small, visible signs of the city's return in the years that followed. Today it remains a fixture of the riverfront alongside the giant-screen theatre next door, and the merged insectarium adds live insects, a butterfly garden and a bug-themed tasting counter to the visit, broadening the appeal well beyond fish alone.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 1 Canal Street, New Orleans, United States

Telephone: 1-800-774-7394

Website: https://audubonnatureinstitute.org/aquarium

Opening Date: 01/09/1990